Marine One touched down at 5:50 p.m. on a soccer field across from the town's firehouse, where volunteer firemen waited and watched, dressed in full gear.

At least 100 onlookers gathered nearby.

Andrea Garncarz stood with her 7-year-old son, Zac, who had a hand-drawn sign welcoming Obama to New Jersey, decorated with two American flags.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a child," said Andrea Garncarz, of Edgewater, a real estate agent in Cresskill.

Ten minutes after landing, Obama's motorcade headed to a fundraiser dinner for the Democratic National Committee on the other side of this 2-square-mile town, in a wealthy development called Tammy Brook. The dinner is at the home of Michael Kempner, CEO of MWW Group, an East Rutherford-based public relations and lobbying firm. The invitation said the guest list is limited to 50, at $30,400 a plate.

An official from the DNC said the dinner is expected to raise $1 million.

The guest list has not been released.

Skyler Greenwald, 16, lives around the corner from Kempner and wandered by the house with two friends this afternoon. He said it was exciting to have the president in his neighborhood, but he didn't expect to see him and wasn't sure if any other neighborhood residents would attend the dinner.